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Description: | A small shunting engine converted by the Royal Engineers named the 'Microbe'. It can be seen on the Northern Railway which ran from Bonaberi in the mouth of the estuary of the Cameroons to Nkongsamba in the north of the country. This was the only engine available from Bonaberi to Muyuka (the approximate half-way point on the railway) until December when another arrived from French Guinea.
An Imperial General Staff was formed in 1911 to train, equip and ensure uniformity of forces in all territories of the Empire, sufficient for self-defence. In order to ensure that forces were not diverted away from the main theatre of operations, British naval and military objectives in foreign territories were to be restricted to such as could be dealt with by local forces.
Togoland and the Cameroons were annexed by Germany in 1884 and were enclosed on land sides by British or French territory. A wireless station was established at Kamina, Togoland, which was considered to be a pivotal point of German naval communications in the Atlantic. In August 1914, the Cabinet decided that a proposal of Togoland neutrality could not be entertained. General Dobell, Inspector-General of the West African Frontier Force, proposed that Kamina, Duala (where another wireless station could be found), Buea and Victoria, in the Cameroons, to be worthy of attack. | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Subjects: | Engineering West Africa 1914-1918 Royal Engineers railways British Army | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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